Good morning everyone! Happy Friday to you!

Joining today's show are Mark Halperin, Eugene Robinson, Kristen Soltis Anderson, Michael Schmidt, Kasie Hunt, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Josh Green, Thomas Friedman, Donald Trump, Amy Holmes, Chuck Todd, Mike Allen, Adm. James Stavridis, Christopher Dickey, Leigh Gallagher and more...

Whaddyaknow, Donald trump is on the show again. I think this is the third time within a week and a half. Yesterdays show was monopolized by that subject. 

Breaking news in Lafayette, Louisiana with another movie theatre shootingLouisiana Theater Shooting: Gunman Opens Fire During 'Trainwreck' Screening. A gunman killed two people and wounded nine others after standing up and opening fire about 20 minutes into a movie in Lafayette, Louisiana, police said.

Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft said the 58-year-old man used a handgun and took his own life when officers arrived at the scene within about a minute.

Dee Stanley, chief administrative officer of the city about 50 miles southwest of Baton Rouge, told MSNBC TV that some of the wounded were in "very critical" condition with life-threatening injuries.

The ages of the victims range from late teens to 60s, according to Craft.

The gunman was sitting in the Grand Theatre 16 "just like everybody else" before shooting randomly during a screening of the movie "Trainwreck" at about 7:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m. ET), Craft said.

He added: "The information we have at this time indicates that he was by himself, he sat by himself and the first two people he shot were sitting right in front of him ... When he stood up and started firing, people started rushing out. It looks like he spotted the officers coming in and he turned around, went against the crowd and fired a single gunshot."

Officials said the gunman had a "criminal history" but declined to immediately release his name.

"We don't believe there's anybody else involved," Louisiana State Police Col. Michael Edmonson told reporters. There were approximately 100 people inside the theater at the time, he added.

Authorities have located what they believe is the gunman's car and called in the bomb squad after "suspicious" items were seen inside, Edmonson told reporters.

Image: Shooting at Lafayette, Louisiana, movie theater
Police tape surrounds the scene Thursday night at the Grand Theatre in Lafayette, Louisiana. Treylan Arceneaux / AP
Katie Domingue, who was in the theater, told The Daily Advertiser newspaper that "an older white man" began shooting about 20 minutes into the movie.

"He wasn't saying anything," Domingue said. "I didn't hear anybody screaming, either."

Keifer Sanders told MSNBC TV that he was in another theater when "the screen went black," alarms sounded and the audience was shepherded out the emergency exit.

Gov. Bobby Jindal praised the actions of two teachers inside the theater who performed what he called acts of heroism as gunfire erupted: A teacher jumped to protect another teacher, perhaps saving her life, and the second managed to pull the fire alarm, he said.

"Both teachers ended up shot. The second one, the one whose life was saved, even though she was shot in the leg, she had the presence of mind to pull the fire alarm to help save other lives," he said.

At least one shooting victim had been released from the hospital by Thursday night, and another was in surgery and "not doing well," Craft said. One of the people wounded was identified by her family as Allister Viator Martin. "All we know is that she was injured and she is in the hospital," her uncle said.

The family of another reassured worried friends on Facebook that "momma is ok, no bone damage and no artery damage, just a soft tissue wound" and she should be fine.

Authorities said investigators know the identity of the gunman but did not release it. Craft said the suspect has some criminal history, but nothing recent. A backpack was found inside the theater that police dogs alerted on, Edmonson said.

Police stand outside of the Grand Theatre in Lafayette, Louisiana, on Thursday. Stacy Revere / Getty Images
Investigators are trying to determine what motivated the shooting.

"What brought the guy in there, why did he go in there by himself, why did he go in to the theater and why did he decide to pull a weapon out and to harm individuals — and actually kill two individuals," Edmonson said. "We need to find that out, but it's going to take time to do that," he said.

Louisiana State Police, University of Louisiana-Lafayette police, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting local police. Police were deployed to other theaters in Lafayette as a precaution, Craft said.

"I know a lot of us are horrified and shocked," said Jindal, who quickly went to Lafayette. "I think I speak for every mom and dad who just wants to hug their kids."

Jindal added: "This is an awful night for Lafayette. This is an awful night for Louisiana. This is an awful night for the United States."

"Trainwreck" is a romantic comedy starring Amy Schumer, who tweeted:

The shooting took place a week after the man who shot and killed 12 people at a theater in Aurora, Colorado, was convicted and on the very day a jury said his attack was cruel enough to consider sentencing him to death. James Holmes was convicted of 165 counts of murder, attempted murder and other charges after opening fire during a Batman film.

In trump news, what was (Donald) Trump saying about him winning all of the time with the Hispanics? What has he won? What He Is Doing at the US-Mexico Border. The border between the United States and Mexico got a visitor Thursday afternoon: Donald Trump.

The GOP presidential contender landed in the border city of Laredo, Texas, to tour the border and give a press conference, where he highlighted what he called a "real problem."

"We have a tremendous danger on the border with the illegals coming in," Trump said.

Trump’s comments come just a day after a new study from the Pew Research Center found that the number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States has remained steady for the fifth year in a row – dropping from a peak in 2007.

He made the comments after the border union that had planned to give the tour backed out at the last minute.

"Our intentions to meet with Mr. Trump was to provide a 'Boots on the Ground' perspective to not only Mr. Trump, but to the media that would be in attendance at this event," the National Border Patrol Council Local 2455 wrote in a statement.

Trump said the organization backed down because of pressure from the national organization. He still toured the border and then joined Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz and City Manager Jesus Olivares at a news conference to speak about border security.

"Border patrol is petrified of saying what’s happening, cause they have a real problem here," Trump told reporters after landing.

Trump went on to again predict that he would win the Hispanic vote, saying that he could topple Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

"Easily she's the worst Secretary of State in the history of our country," he said. "She's going to be beaten and I'm the one to beat her."

Still, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that 74 percent of Americans see undocumented immigrants from Mexico as “mainly honest people trying to get ahead” as opposed to “mainly undesirable people like criminals.”

He also bashed fellow presidential contender and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry for doing a "terrible job" with border security during his tenure.

The trip to Laredo, whose residents are more than 90 percent Hispanic, comes after Trump made headlines last month when announcing his candidacy, calling immigrants from Mexico “rapists” and “criminals.”

Justice Department asked to launch criminal investiation into Hillary Clinton's email usage. The Justice Department has been asked to launch a criminal investigation into whether Hillary Clinton mishandled potentially classified information on the private email account she used as the secretary of state, according to reports.

The request to the Justice Department by two inspectors general comes after they noted in a June 29 memo for the State Department and intelligence agencies that Clinton’s private home server stored “hundreds of potentially classified emails,” The New York Times reported Thursday.

Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner for President, has staunchly denied that she sent or received any classified emails since the use of her private email account was revealed in March. Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner for President, has staunchly denied that she sent or received any classified emails since the use of her private email account was revealed in March.

The Justice Department is currently combing through about 55,000 pages of emails, this after some 3,000 emails were made public at the end of June, according to The Times.

While the emails were not initially deemed sensitive material, the State Department has since redacted portions of some of them.

Kenya lockdown as Obama comes to talk security, trade
US President Barack Obama arrives in his ancestral homeland Kenya late Friday, with a massive security operation under way to protect him from Al-Qaeda-linked Somali militants.  Obama, making his first visit as president to his father's birthplace, will address an entrepreneurship summit and hold talks on trade and investment, security and counter-terrorism, and democracy and human rights.

Parts of the Kenyan capital Nairobi have been locked down and airspace will be closed during the president's arrival late Friday and his departure late Sunday, when he travels up the Rift Valley to neighbouring Ethiopia, the seat of the African Union.

At least 10,000 police officers, roughly a quarter of the entire national force, have been deployed to the capital.

Top of the list of security concerns is Somalia's Shebab militants, who have staged a string of suicide attacks, massacres and bombings on Kenyan soil, including the bloody attack on the Westgate shopping mall in the heart of the capital nearly two years ago that left 67 dead.

Excitement has been building in Kenya for weeks, with the visit painted as a major boost for the country's position as an African hub -- something that has taken a battering in recent years due to Shebab attacks and political violence that landed Kenyan leaders in the International Criminal Court. "I need not tell you how eagerly we have all waited for the day, or how keen we all are to make it the most memorable of homecomings," Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta told reporters.

"It's a vote of confidence for our city and our country," Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero also told AFP.

He has overseen a clean-up campaign in Nairobi, including the filling of potholes, sweeping of streets, the repainting of faded road markings and laying new pavements on once muddy sidewalks.

The two main newspapers carried the same simple headline "Karibu Obama" -- "Welcome Obama" in Swahili. The Standard newspaper promised a "spectacular reception for a son of the soil".

Kenyatta, writing in the Daily Nation, said that "many are the ties, not just of friendship, but also of family" between Obama and Kenya.

Obama is celebrated as a hero throughout the country, yet many Kenyans have been disappointed it has taken him until almost the end of his second term in office to make the trip.

A presidential visit to Kenya had been put on ice while Kenyatta faced charges of crimes against humanity for his role in 2007-2008 post-election violence. The ICC has since dropped the case, citing a lack of evidence and accusing Kenya of bribing or intimidating witnesses.

Kenyatta, however, has signalled that his controversial Deputy President William Ruto, still on trial at the ICC and outspokenly homophobic -- having describing gays as "dirty" -- would be present when government officials meet Obama.

Asked whether gay rights would be discussed, Kenyatta said it was "a non-issue". But Obama, in an interview with the BBC, said he was "not a fan of discrimination and bullying of anybody on the basis of race, on the basis of religion, on the basis of sexual orientation or gender", and that this would be "part and parcel of the agenda".

Counter-terrorism will also be a key topic for discussion, with Nairobi the scene of one of Al-Qaeda's twin 1998 US embassy bombings.

"The fight against terror will be central, we have been working in very close cooperation with American agencies," Kenyatta said. "Poverty, improved health for our people, better education, better roads, better security, these are our key focuses."

Obama is due to address an international business summit in Nairobi on Saturday, an event the US embassy itself warned could be "a target for terrorists".

"The American president is a high-value target so an attack, or even an attempt, would raise the profile of Shebab," warned Richard Tutah, a Nairobi-based security and terrorism expert.

Mitigating that is an overwhelming security presence in the capital, which regional security analyst Abdullahi Halakhe described as "suffocating".

Hundreds of American security personnel have arrived in Kenya in recent weeks.

Obama himself bemoaned the heavy security restrictions earlier this month.

"I will be honest with you, visiting Kenya as a private citizen is probably more meaningful to me than visiting as president, because I can actually get outside of the hotel room or a conference centre," Obama said.

John Kasich: I'll have 'no problem standing out'. Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Thursday he is uniquely positioned to "stand out" in the wide-open field of Republican candidates he recently joined.

"My problem has never been standing out, the problem has been standing out too much," Kasich told CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday.

Kasich launched his White House bid Tuesday from his alma mater Ohio State University with a freewheeling speech calling for Republican unity and empathy for the poor.

Kasich, a former congressman, declined to weigh in when asked about Donald Trump's candidacy.

"I don't have time to waste thinking about what the heck is going on with everybody else," Kasich said.

The immediate stake for Kasich is a spot onstage at the first Republican debate in Cleveland, in just under two weeks. The Republican Party and Fox News, which is hosting the first debate decided to limit the number of spots to the top 10 candidates in national polls taken near the time of the debate.

Kasich has been consistently polling near the back of the pack, just shy of that 10th spot.

The Kasich campaign has been banking on a post-announcement bump to lift him onstage.

Kerry defends Iran nuclear deal in Senate testimony. Agreement has "closed off all paths to a bomb" through peaceful means, US secretary of state tells senators
John Kerry has mounted a defence of the Iran nuclear deal, telling members of Congress that rejection of the accord would give Iran "a great big green light" to swiftly accelerate its atomic programme.

In his opening statement on Thursday, the US secretary of state strongly defended the Vienna agreement, saying that with the Iran deal, the US and other world powers have "closed-off all paths to a bomb".

He dismissed the argument that the US could get a better deal with Iran as "a fantasy, plain and simple".

Kerry was joined on Thursday by Ernest Moniz, the energy secretary, and Jack Lew, the treasury secretary, as they tried to convince senators to support the deal, amid intense opposition by Israel and pro-Israeli groups in the US.

Moniz, who was also involved with the negotiations, said the agreement "prevents Iran from getting a nuclear weapon".

"I am confident that the technical underpinnings of this deal are solid."

Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington DC, said Kerry faces the challenge of answering questions from "quite sceptical" senators, adding that "there are going to be some tough questions".

The hearing marked a new phase of a bruising struggle that will lead to what will arguably be the biggest Senate foreign policy vote in more than a decade.

The deal will take effect unless Congress blocks it, and Republicans in control of the House and Senate have made clear they intend to try to do so in September. 

Hillary Mann Leverett, a Georgetown University expert on diplomacy, said that while the three US officials have "enormous credibility" going into the Congressional hearing, convincing senators to support the Iran deal is a "hard sell."

She also said that it is a risky move for the Obama administration to rely soley on the technical argument to promote the deal, while ceding the political argument to the opponents of the deal.  

In his own opening statement, Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declared his opposition to the deal, telling Kerry that US negotiators have been "fleeced" by the Iranians.

On Wednesday, Kerry and the other cabinet officials offered a classified briefing to legislators, away from the media and the public.

Later in the week, Kerry will travel to the Middle East to reassure Gulf Arab officials meeting in Qatar that the US will work with them to "push back" against Iranian influence in the region. "I will be travelling to Doha in the next couple of weeks to meet with the whole [Gulf Cooperation Council]," Kerry told the pan-Arab Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday.

He was referring to the group comprising Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar.

Most US allies in the Arabian Gulf region publicly welcomed a deal between world powers and Iran over its disputed nuclear programme, but they accuse the country of interfering in Arab conflicts and pushing hard for heightened regional influence.

"I think we can persuade them both that by being more effective in our counter-push as well as through the restraints we have, they will be significantly strengthened going forward," Kerry said.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, told supporters on Saturday that US policies in the region were "180 degrees" opposed to Iran's and his country would continue to back its allies in Arab states.

Kerry told Al Arabiya television in an interview he found those comments disturbing and troubling.

Few of America's friends in the region back the deal.

(Donald) Trump is on the phone now with Eugene Robinson, Amy Holmes, Mika and Joe on the panel

Regardless of it all this week, please stay in touch!